One Week Update

Saturday was our “one week” mark from May getting her injections. I wish I had more media to share with you, but I will explain why that wasn’t possible. Promise!

All in all, May felt really good. She has always had trouble through trot poles.This weekend, there were 4 fairly spaced trot poles set up in the outdoor, and we could do them from a slow trot without an issue. She could push through them without falling on her forehand and running past my aides. But why no media? Well, both days this weekend we had to share the arena with the horse-eating carriage.

A post shared by Emily (@may_as_well_event) on Mar 3, 2018 at 12:18pm PST

In fact, on Saturday, our ride lasted more than an hour. We walked, like usual, started our trot, then the carriage showed up. May was… not amused, so we walked. We followed the carriage for about 15 minutes. Then, they started trotting, which makes a lot more noise, and May had to be convinced to follow it again. By then half hour mark, we could reliably walk and trot with the carriage in the arena. Then, I tried to canter, and May put up a big fight. Flinging her head around, not allowing me to sit on her, and trying to run off with me… Fun. When I got a decent canter, I let her walk.

Then, the carriage needed a video, so I ended up walking around the arena while they took the video. After the video, I asked for the canter again, and I was able to get a mostly relaxed and collected canter. Whew!

The next day, I showed up to the barn still a bit sore from the day before (holding back the May freight train was a workout!). Of course, as soon as I tacked up, the carriage horse went out to get hooked to his trailer… cool. I went out and got on before they got out there, and another rider lamented that if the carriage came into the ring, she would probably end her ride.

Nope. No Way. Not doing that. It was one of the first 50 degree days with sunshine in a while. I didn’t have time to stop my ride and pick it up again. We were riding through this.

Luckily, May ended up being a lot more relaxed about the carriage this time around. Not totally relaxed, but at least, totally rideable. In fact, I ended up loping over a few fences with her, all of which she took quietly and out of stride. Good girl!

Hopefully, we can get a real jump school in soon. Has your horse ever seen a carriage? Or have there been any majorly “spooky” things you have had to school your horse through at home?

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19 thoughts on “One Week Update”

Yay! So glad May feels better! And I’m glad she’s getting over the carriage. For Amber it was the ATV with the fake cow on it. Or the stand with a fake cow head on it. I think she knew it looked like a cow but there was no smell so how did it look like a cow?! lol

I would love to see if May has any instinct towards chasing cows… It’s totally possible she might… although it would probably be more of the, let me walk this thing across the field, than let me try chasing this thing down.

So glad the injections worked their magic and helped May feel better!! My horse tends to be a little frightened of cows (but only when they look right at him), and certain tractors. But most of the time he is pretty brave, and his “spooks” are more of a “can I get out of work” than anything else.

Thanks! I’ve ridden with the tractor lots of times while it’s dragging the arena and have never had a problem. I think it was the fact that this “thing” was literally chasing a horse that really got to her. hahaha

I was not on board at the time, but my mare would like the universe to know that llamas are horse-eating demons and that her stupid human herd mate was good for hiding behind, but lacked the sense to run away as appropriate.

I’m glad that the injections worked for May!
All my horses are pretty used to carriages as I drive my miniature horse, so they get used to a midget horse pulling a cart. They might be a little freaked out if they saw a full sized horse and a proper carriage though!

The one time Juice saw a carriage was at the Kentucky horse park, running late on our way down to the dressage arenas after losing my bridle number briefly. So of course he spooked on slick blacktop and wouldn’t walk normally until I got the poor old couple to stop the adorable mini horse. He danced and huffed on and off the whole rest of the way. Thankfully he chilled out in the warmup area. Hahaha

Good on you for working through riding with the carriage. One of my best friends drives ponies at a barn where there are riding horses as well. She does get some side eye from riders at first, but when people hang in there and introduce their horses appropriately like you did, they quickly get over the carriage and everyone gets along.